Lien Homers and Rodolph Makes History as the Aggies Beat the Bulls, 4-3
by NMSU Athletics
TUCSON, Ariz.-- In the bottom of the seventh, New Mexico State softball’s junior designated player Stacey Lien hit a home run deep over the left center field fence to beat South Florida, 4-3, at the Hillenbrand Memorial Tournament, Saturday afternoon, in Tucson, Ariz. With this win, NMSU head coach Kathy Rodolph is now the winningest coach in the program’s history with 109 wins, she surpassed Rick Gamez record of 108 wins.
Lien (Tacoma, Wash.) also led the Aggies offensively, going 3-for-4 at the plate, while batting two runners in and scoring a run herself. Junior left fielder Kristi Randall (Chula Vista, Calif.) hit her fourth double of the weekend against the Bulls as well.
Head coach Kathy Rodolph said that she was proud of the way the Aggies rebounded from the previous day.
“This is a big win for us, we battled hard and proved to ourselves that we can come through in clutch situations,” Rodolph said. “It’s the sort of mentality that we need to bring every time we take the field.”
Junior right-handed pitcher Kim Watson (Spokane, Wash.) recorded her seventh win of the season, while retiring five Bulls in her sixth complete game of the season.
Both teams remained scoreless until the top of the fifth when South Florida put two runs on the board as they capitalized off of Aggie errors.
However the determined Aggies stepped back up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth and created some offensive of their own. The rally started from freshman short stop Kylie Randall (Chula Vista, Calif.) who singled to the pitcher and beat the throw to first, then Kylie Randall stole second and on the next pitch she advanced to third from a pass ball by the catcher.
Junior center fielder Rishelle Gastelum (Santa Ana, Calif.) singled to left field and scored Kylie Randall. After an aggressive at-bat from freshman first baseman Hoku Nohara, she was hit by a pitch and took a base, which forced the Bulls to change pitchers.
Lien hit a hard single to left center off of the fresh pitcher and scored Gastelum. Freshman outfielder Kandis Jones, who pitch-ran for Nohara, advanced to second. Then freshman third baseman Ashley Maroda (San Bernardino, Calif.) was hit by a pitch, allowing the Aggies to load the bases. Senior Colleen Kimbro was credited an RBI after she was walked and forced a runner to come home. The inning ended in the Aggies’ favor, 3-2.
The Bulls would go down with a fight as they tied the score, 4-4, in the top of the seventh, making the Aggies answer them, which is exactly what they did.
NMSU’s Lien, the lead-off batter in the bottom of the seventh stepped up to the plate and hammered a deep one over the left center field wall and the Aggies picked up their first win of the weekend, 4-3.
The Aggies are back in action tonight at 8:00 p.m. as they go head-to-head with Iowa State at 8:00 p.m. Then NMSU is back on the field, Sunday, March 2, as they take on two-time defending national champions, No. 8 Arizona at 1:00 p.m
